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Iconia vs. Tansformer vs. Xoom

Posted 7 years ago

InfiniteT

Top 25 Contributor

I have the pleasure of testing the Iconia, Xoom an Transformer over the last 5 days. So here is my .02 on the 3 tablets. Since this is the Iconia review section, I will try to focus most on the Iconia.
Firstly, all 3 tablets are nearly idectical as far as internals. So the differences are product specific, and there are a few differences.
The build quality of the Iconia is superior to the Transformer (TF) and pretty much on par with the Xoom. Like the Xoom the back of the unit is a brushed aluminum (the Xoom is grey anodized) and feels solid. The Iconia has a plastic bezel that outlines the screen whereas the Xoom's glass runs nearly all the way to the edge with an aluminum trim piece around the edge. The TF is like the Xoom but has an all plastic back and an aluminum trim around the edge. The Iconia's screen is solid glass and feels solid and does not flex when pushed, like the Xoom. The TF seems to have some kind of clear plastic or thin glass screen that has some flex to it if you give it more than a tap. The display of the Iconia is bright and vibrant and pleasent to look at. However the sharpness of the picture is less than that of the Xoom and TF. If you look close, you can actually see the pixils. It isnt a big deal, but gadget junkies will notice it.
The UI of the unit is butter smooth, smoother than the TF by far and even a bit smoother than the Xoom. It is also more responsive to guestures like the xoom, the TF, although smooth, seems to lag behind the actual questure.
The Iconia has something the Xoom and TF doesnt have, and it is a pretty sweet feature. A full sized USB port that supports KBs, mice, flash drives, card readers and USB HDDs. The TF does not have that unless you have the keyboard dock ( add $150) and the Xoom requires a $20 cord that converts the micro USB to USB.
The Iconia performed EXTREMELY well in everything I did with it. I was VERY impressed by it and this would have been a total keeper for me hands down if but 2 things.
1. The screen. The pixil density I mentioned before. Being able to see the dot pitch (space between the pixils) even though minor, is a deal for me because I am such a hard core gadget geek that really pays attention to such things. Also the display only supports 256k colors, whereas the TF and Xoom support 16 million. Again, not very noticable, but if you really look at high res photos you can see a difference where color shades blend.
2. Support. The Iconias are know (some of them anyway) to have a few glitches. Some have issues with wifi performance and some have issues of the screen waking up on its own. Acer IS issuing an update but for some reason they have many different build numbers. Some of them have recieved their update weeks ago and others still dont have it. Even those purchased from the same lot, in the same store going to the same household... your wife my have been updated and you arent?! Not a big deal if your unit doesnt suffer the issues, but it could be an issue if it does have the issue(s) or it could be a an issue with upcoming firmware and OS updates (Honeycomb 3.1). 3.1 for example is already running on the Xoom and TF. Also accessory support. Since the Asus and Xoom are more popular brands, there seems to be more accessories available for for them. However, I am sure, with time, the Acer will get more.
In the end though for $50 more (16gb Iconia vs. 16gb Transformer) and $50 less than (32gb Iconia vs. 32gb Xoom) this tablet is one heck of a unit. The build quality is on par with the Xoom (except screen) and the added USB fuctionality over the TF (needs $150 dock) and Xoom (needs $20 cord) is great.
If you are considering between the Asus and the Iconia, (and dont care about the keyboard dock) GET THE ICONIA. It is a much better unit for the money!! AND, you can actually go in and buy one and take it home. The TF STILL has availability issues. For the added features of the Iconia over the Xoom (which is still waiting to get its MicroSD slot activated for crying out loud) at $50 less (32gb vs 32gb) and you can look passed the screen differences and accessory limitations, it is still a heck of a unit! I hope Acer gets the update kinks worked out because this beauty deserves it. Acer needs to push this unit harder, it will sell!

I would recommend this to a friend

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tmorales509

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4

First tablet great choice.

Posted 7 years ago

tmorales509

I have owned the acer for about 4 month so i feel i can make a honest review. Everyone i know owns the ipad and i have used a ipad2 quite a few times and i must say overall i dont regret at all buying a android tablet over apple. This thing can do the same thing and more than a ipad and cost $150 less. Starting off with the pros i would say all the ports/connections is a great deal, i mean hdmi output, full and mini usb ports and a micro sd port compatible with up to a 32GB card is great. You can instantly make this 16GB model into a 48 just like that, that is why i said 150 less since this can be a 48GB model, lol where as with the ipad2 you get a 32GB for $600 so yeah it makes sense. It has flash player, since most things on the internet run in flash this is a great thing. The 5MP camera with built in led flash take pretty nice pictures, it has stereo speakers so it is a little louder than some other tablets out there, it has widgets. Apple's store is bigger but that does not mean it is better. I have yet to see a game or app that i liked on the ipad that i was not able to get on the android market, if not the same exact app, something similar. The voice commands are great and work great as well. If you dont like the stock web browser you can also download other browsers off the market, i currently use dolphin browser which i think is faster and has more features than the stock browser. Same thing with music players, i downloaded amazons mp3 player and haven't went back to the stock players since, live wallpapers(kind of a pro and con), you get email notification popups as well as you can sync with ebay and get watched item ending reminders. The store is nice and very detailed about each app, feels sturdy and i KNOW for a fact it is made well, how? Because i have dropped it a total of 3 times, once from about 3 feet straight onto concrete and twice it fell off my dresser witch is about 2 feet, it does not have scratch and it still works flawlessly, There are apps you can download to organize your apps into folder which is nice and saves room on the home screen. Battery life is pretty decent, i wouldnt say great but it is good. You can download torrent movies straight onto the device! After using this and going to use a ipad, the ipad just seems so boring and plain. Im sure there are more pros that i just cant think of at the moment but i am sure i got most the major thing.
Now time for the cons. Yes the device is big and heavy, i believe it is the heaviest or second heaviest tablet out there so carrying this thing around is no fun. Dont like that you cant charge it through your pc via usb, at least i dont think you can, some apps and games force close and do not work on this device, happens rarely but it does happen, There is not much accessories out there such as cases, skins and stuff like that, you can get cases for the ipad for as little as $10. For the acer i think there is only 1 or 2 cases and there are like $40! If you are doing alot of things on the device is does tend to lag a little at times, oh yeah and the live wallpapers, the are nice and a great feature but i have found that using them at least on this device makes the device lag like crazy! And last but definitely not least is the is the store, the store when it works is great but alot of times it is either really slow, gets connection errors, gets stuck "waiting to install" apps or just gives an error saying the app installation was unsuccessful. Although i found the problem for that just not the fix yet. I found that when the device get under 2GB of free space(give or take) i start getting these errors, after freeing up space, the errors suddenly dissapear, weird right? Although i do not know a fix, the way i kind of solved it was to just buy a micro sd card to store all my music on(since i had it on the device before). That way i always have plenty of space for apps and games.
Overall i really like this device and wouldn't trade it for a ipad anyday(just maybe a better android table) but i will keep for for at least a year before i trade it. I would recommend this to anybody that's having a hard time deciding on apple or android!

I would recommend this to a friend

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Anonymous

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

5

What a great device!

Posted 7 years ago

Anonymous

Here are some observations I've made over the past week...some may be Iconia specific and some may be Honeycomb specific.
1. I plugged some headphones in and the external speakers stayed on. I tried 2 sets of headphones and they both do it...that sorta stoopid!
2. The Hero of Sparta game is NOT the full version. It's a very short demo...it looks good and shows off the graphics capability of the unit ably but I was looking forward to some more monster bashing...The other two included games, Need For Speed and Let's Golf DO seem to be full versions and also look and play great.
3. The unit is generally very fast in all things. I have noticed some slowdown in wifi when switching from one router to another but a reset fixes it. The reset hole is super small...I wish it was just a smidge bigger.
4. I've had to reset the unit several times, mostly to fix the above-mentioned wifi slowdown. I wonder if just turning off wifi and turning it back on might accomplish the same thing.
5. I've tried 4 different browsers (stock, Dolphin, Firefox, Opera) and have pretty much settled on Dolphin HD. I'm disappointed because I REALLY wanted to use Firefox but it just doesn't seem to be up to snuff. Rendering on some fonts and graphics just doesn't seem to be as crisp as all three other browsers. I also don't like how it handles tabs. Dolphin seems more like a proper browser and supports various plugins with mixed success. AdBlock doesn't seem to work at all and Xmarks works OK but doesn't seem to be able to import bookmarks that are in subfolders with 100% success.
6. The wireless card is just OK. With a strong signal it's great but at my desk at work I'm pretty far from the router and, while my laptop gets 1 to 2 bars (and sporadically disconnects, but not unusably so), the Iconia gets a maximum of 1 bar and is disconnected more often than not.
7. Multitouch is very nice and responsive...the interface in general is very snappy and I don't ever feel like I'm waiting on it excessively.
8. Battery life is acceptable though I've noticed as some others have the large drain from the non-existent cell standby. There's GOTTA be a good, non-kludgy fix forthcoming for that. I run the display at about 33% indoors and it's just fine brightness-wise...I'm sure that contributes some battery time. I get through and entire day right now, up til bedtime with moderate use and still have about 10% battery left. Granted, I'm not surfing much at work due to the weak wifi signal but I still play games here.
9. The software available is hard to find (if you're looking for HD, tablet optimized apps that is...in general, the market is sorta like drinking from a firehose ) but a lot of it is fantastic. The CNN app is great as is Accuweather's Honeycomb app. USA Today's app is also very nice. I get some force closes, mostly (it seems) on apps not optimized for tablets but they're not excessive.
10. As have others, I've noticed that the device wakes up spontaneously from time to time. I won't swear to it but I don't think it was doing it until I enabled my hotmail account in the mail app a couple days in. I set up my Gmail account right away and I don't THINK it exhibited the wake up behavior then.
11. I haven't used the cameras much, and not at all for skyping but the few pics and videos I've taken seem passable and hitting the shutter button results in a picture being taken quite quickly, noticeably faster than both my phone and my el cheapo digital camera.
12. Wish List: I wish the USB slot would see NTFS devices. I wish I could charge via USB. I wish the charging cord was WAY longer. I wish the market had a dedicated tablet-optimized section.
I absolutely LOVE this thing! It has some minor flaws but I don't expect perfection from any computing device and I don't think it's realistic to do so. I can't wait for the Honeycomb 3.1 update!

I would recommend this to a friend

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arbylee

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4

best tablet for the price

Posted 7 years ago

arbylee

I'm typing this on my tablet using the on screen keyboard and it works perfectly. Just be sure to elevate your fingers! I bought a keyboard case and waiting for it to arrive but that should be a good accessory for when I want to use it like a net book. Why pay an extra $150 for a keyboard dock for the Asus? Plus my keyboard has a buit-in case!
No problems with it so far after using it for a week.
Yes, as others have noticed, on white backgrounds, you can see the screen.like web touch screen spots BUT you forget about it and don't notice it when you're actually using it, so to me, it isn't an issue. But I think you'd be able to view that on all tablets because of the type of screen they have.
Once I downloaded a file manager, it was easy to view and access my flash drive through the AWESOME USB port! The main reason why I chose this tablet forget about adapters and docking stations, what a waste those are. How convenient is that having to lug around an adapter or docking station to gain access to a USB port?
The weight was a concern for me. I am a weakling! Haha. It DOES get tiring holding onto it in landscape mode, but I usually have it resting on a pilow or my stomach or my legs and I've been fine with it. My husband says the weight is fine and doesn't bother him at all. Plus, I held other tablets and they all pretty much we heavy to me, so I don't think it matters a few extra ounces, especially since the USB and SD card slot and HDMI ports are there!
I don't like the docking port sticking out on the bottom. When holding it, it digs into hand BUT looking at other tablets, most have the docking station jutting out on the bottom. Would have been nice if it was a hidden covered port like the SD card port is.
Power charger is short, but I have my surge protector cable that I pulled out, and I can comfortably use the tablet on my couch while charging. And since everyone should be using a surge protector, then there is no problem with the length. Or you can buy an extension cord.
Power cord plugs into right top if in landscape mode-perfect for using when it charging. Other tablets had it on the bottom- how annoying when you're trying to hold it.
I love the aluminum backing and it feels sturdy in my hands. I have had no issues with the glass or case creaking as in other reviews.
The battery life is amazing! I used it on 12% battery for an hour before I had to plug it in! This is with playing games, using file manager, searching the internet, reading books. Since I don't have a video converter, I do not know how battery life is while using video.I've had it for a week and used it all day long and I am only on my third battery charge.
With so many retailers offering gift cards with purchase, this tablet is the best price for what you have. The Asus only is same rpice, but no significant ports unless you soend another $150 for its docking station. The thrive is simlar to the Acer but $150 more, so this tablet wins right now until someone else drops their prices.
I'm very happy with this tablet, especially if you can get it with the current promos right now.
Acer just came out with their 7" version, if it were cheaper in price I might have considered getting that one because it would be lighter and easier to hold in your hand if the 10" is too big for you, but my husband liked the 10" better so I got this one.
Just a side note, I accidentally got out of this box, and it was hard to get my pointer back in here at the end word, it kept wanting to go higher and wouldn't scroll further, but I managed to get back in here- the ease of their selection tool is not easy! Though that is most likely also an android issue with the onscreen keyboard, so not Acer-plus once I get my keyboard, it will probably be a lot more accurate.

I would recommend this to a friend

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JinMBA

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

5

Great value (with caveats)

Posted 7 years ago

JinMBA

Nvidia Tegra 2 is going to become the standard cpu to power all tablets for some time to come. 1 GB RAM is currently the highest amount in any tablet as well. In terms of hardware, Iconia does everything that Xoom does, with arguably better software (SD and Flash support out of the box). Honeycomb, or Android 3.0, was designed specifically with tablets in mind. Without ranting off of every single spec users may see on Best Buy's webpage above, here are a couple of questions that are not addressed yet.
1. True multi-touch. There are some tablets with similar specs (e.g. eLocity A7) out there with capacitive screens that claim to be "multi-touch" when in fact they only support "1+1 touch", which is used for pinching and zooming only. 1+1 touch has very little practical uses as far as gaming and other more advanced apps are concerned. Acer Iconia has true multi-touch.
2. Access to Android Market. Some tablets with similar specs (e.g. Viewsonic g Tablet) do not come with ready access to Android Market. Unfortunately this is more of a problem with the Android platform overall. But this is one of the trade-offs you get choosing between iOS (iPad) and Android-based tabs: uniform controlled experience versus customization.
3. Regular LCD screen. Capacitive screens for the most part fall in to two camps. One camp uses IPS (in-plane switching) LCD (e.g. iPad 2 and Asus Eee Pad Transformer), which gives greater viewing angles (~178 degrees) and more vibrant pictures. The other uses just regular LCD for about 160 degrees viewing angle. Acer Iconia uses the latter rather than the IPS LCD. Chalk this one up as a minor con.
4. Lastly, no word yet on whether or not it is possible to root Acer Iconia so that if you aren't happy with the firmware, you might very well be stuck with it and are at the manufacturer's mercy.
And for those who are confused by the A500's twin, W500, the ONLY difference is that A500 uses Android, and W500 uses Windows 7. So if you would rather have a Windows 7 based version of this tablet, you do have a choice. Maybe not through Best Buy though.
Finally, for comparison purposes, Asus EeePad Transformer is basically identical to Acer Iconia in terms of hardware. The only difference in between the two are type of LCD screen, and battery life. EeePad Transformer's battery life is estimated to be somewhere around 9.5 hours, longer if keyboard docking station's used. Acer Iconia's top range is somewhere around 8 hours.

I would recommend this to a friend

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AMOKC

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4

Great tablet, that could have been an IPad killer.

Posted 7 years ago

AMOKC

Overall this thing is great, however it didn't suit my requierment of what I wanted out of it and that's HD video playback. It is severely lacking in this department, due soley too(in my opinion) the screen. The 262K colors and non ISP screen make the picture extremely washed out and not sharp when compared to the IPad 2's display with 16 million colors. I knew this going into it, but gave it a shot anyhow. The HD videos I tried were all in mp4 format, stock video player was used as well as MOBOPlayer. Video was jerky and slowed down with soft edges, detracting from the HD quality significantly. Tried same file using MOBOPlayer, file played better but still not 100% smooth and the same soft edged appearance remained. The A500 is also finicky with bit rate to allow playback. I found the videos I had in the upper 2,000's would have issue, yet another video with 3,600 bitrate played fine for smoothness, yet still lacked the fidelity of an HD video. All mp4 files were 720p( as a side note, these same files played flawlessly in the IPad 2, using the IPad 2 stock player, with the crispness and fidelity you would expect from a 720p video). Standard def. .avi files were acceptable, depening on encoding(some looked better than others). With all that being said, the rest of the device is excellent. It is very very fast, I had no lag or issues when switching between apps what so ever. The wireless range was very good, with no signal drop anywhere in my house, almost 2,000 sqft. I am using a Linksys WRT54G, one of the older ones, had it for years. The stock browser, utilizes tabbed browsing, and didn't crash once in the few hours I had used it and was very fast to load pages with a 6 Meg DSL line. With full brightness on and mild surfing and movie watching, I experienced approximately 5 hours of use, to take the battery down to 26%, from a full charge. It is very well constructed in my opinion, it is heavier than IPad 2, but I didn't find this to be an issue what so ever. I also tried 2 external hard drives formatted in FAT32. The both are WD MyBooks and both are 1 TB. The first one I tried is almost full with movies and the A500, would not pick it up. The second one had only a few Gig's of movies and the A500 picked it up and would allow me to navigate the video files and play(standard def.) them flawlessly, using MOBOPlayer, as these files are all .avi, not sure what the deal was there. Did not even try HDMI out, as I could never get the 720p smooth playback resolved. The sound on this tablet is excellent and quite loud enough for movies and music. For those whom are not primarily concerned with video playback, then this a great tablet for you, it just wasn't for me!!

I would recommend this to a friend

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OlegVorkunov

Top 1000 Contributor

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

5

Fantastic

Posted 7 years ago

OlegVorkunov

Top 1000 Contributor

Do not mind spelling, I am typing it on A500 Iconia.
First the most important features of this tablet are
1. This is the only tablet, which has Dolby and build in equalizer for audio and video mode. This makes sound perfect when connected to headsets or external audio, as well as internal speakers sound better. None of the other tablets have this, including: Zoom, Asus, Samsung galaxy 10.1.
2. It has 2 USB ports, where I was able to connect USB sticks and even my WD passport with 750 Gig. Was able to copy files from camera to externsl HD both connected to tablet. This is great feature.
These are the most important features.
What I do not like:
1. Screen brightness does not adjust based on external elumination. So there is no sensor at all, or it does not work. If it is just software issue, I hope it will be fixed, if not I can leave with it because accessing brightness settings is much easier with Honeycomb.
2. Maximum brightness of the screen is not highest possible,and in bright sunlight screen washed out.
3. Not able to charge via USB port. Provided charger has short cord, but I will extend it by cutting it and add wires. But still requires to carry extra charger. I think it would be required for any tablet, because standard USB port power is not enough to charge any tablet in reasonable amount off time.
4. The only case available is ugly and it smells bad, like burned rubber. Too hard to pull tablet out of the case. Also icase is expensive where it should cost twice less.
5. Very rare force close in market, but not a deal braker.
What I like as well:
Most of regular android apps are working. Android scales these apps pretty well, so claims that there is only 30 apps available is false. You will be able to use most of the existing android apps.Downloaded tons of kids games and my five year old loves it.
Tethring via my dell streak 5 and it is working very good having internet connection anywhere. No reason for 3g model. WiFi is just perfect.
OsS is great hardwhere is the best because of USB ports and dolby.
Not going to replace with anything, such as Asus or galaxy 10.1 even galaxy looks attractive, but not having USB ports on it without any adapter, is a big minus. Beleave me, you would need those. Cannot comment on galaxy having dolby, but I have not found on internet mentioned that galaxy 10.1 has dolby and build in equalizer.
I hope Acer will stand behind their product, because it is the best on the market even compare to Ipad 2.

I would recommend this to a friend

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BBuyer3958

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

5

BetterThan Expected

Posted 7 years ago

BBuyer3958

First of all I am not an "i" guy, but the prospect of a tablet has always intrigued me. After getting about 20 IPads shoved in my face, I was starting to lose faith that a tablet was good for more than playing angry birds and playing music while acting as a $500 electronic photoframe. I did a lot of research on these tablets and ended up going with this one. The reason behind it was the full size USB port which makes all the difference when you want to use a thumb drive to move data around. I was leary making my purchase because many reviews I have read suggest that the Andriod Honeycomb OS is not quite there yet and is plagued by frequent crashes etc. I'm making this post to combat those accusations from the "i"guys. This tablet is honestly friking awesome. The screen looks fantastic, battery life is excellent, browsing is as smooth as a desktop. It is easy to use and after a few days I still keep finding little built in tricks that leave me impressed with how slick of a little OS 3.2 Honeycomb is. If you are a tech person like me, you want this tablet because of the flexability of the Android OS. If you are not a tech person You'll probably be happy with either tablet. This one is however $150 cheaper #thats what I paid anyways# and you dont have to spend $30 for the adapter for each thing you want to plug into it because the ports are alreay there and working. As another note, I was concearned about the availability of apps for these things from some of the reviews I read, but I have spent hours upon hours looking at all the available apps and haven't even made a dent in the pool that are available.
There are only two things specific to this model that makes it not perfect. Im giving it 5 stars on here but if I could rate it more precisely it would be a 4.7. My only complaints are that it is a little heavier than the others and you will notice this if you try to hold it up with one hand and use it with the other. My lap however cannot tell the difference. My second complaint is that it only accepts a MicroSD card for expansion. It would have been awesome if they would've instead equipped it with a 5in1 card reader like some of the others have, but that is only a minor gripe.